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Notes:

We have two separate pictures of the Kingdom of God, one referring to the initial size when planted and it's massive ability to grow, the other as to it's altering effect upon the entire batch.

From least when planted to greatest becoming a tree, it's potential beginning to end as a single seed is perhaps unequaled. There are those critics that say that it is not the least of all seeds, there are seed that are even smaller. In the vernacular of the people of that region Jesus is directly addressing though it would have been the most commonly known seed and most illustrative of the Kingdom's intended growth and process.

If judged by it's initial size, there would be very little expectation of it becoming anything more (else not all that it is envisioned by some to be). Those unfamiliar with what it is and those critical of the Kingdom regardless are of that perspective. For those acquainted with it's end product there is very little way to prove to the others what it'll become other than to allow the time for it to undergo it's growing process.

The same idea holds true for the measures of leaven. Many perceive the loaf to be one thing, what it is now else what they want most to make it. The leaven to be added appears to them to be something putrid and distasteful even drunken and acidic, nothing like they would wish the loaf to be. It is seen as something that will make them to be different, it will effect them or the others around them in a way that they have little control over. It is not they so they insist that needs to be different, it is those whom have begun being leavened needing to be less like the Kingdom and more like themselves. Like with the mustard seed they are blind to the end product. It is not about the changes that are slowly occurring because of the kingdom, it is the final product that the lifetime of changes will produce; both in size and substance.

We can think of this parable in the terms of the seed originally planted in the twelve disciples and what that seed has grown to and is still growing into today. We can think in terms of the effect those measures have already had. We can think on the lines of how difficult it is for it to grow judging by the the parable of the sower and all that it comes naturally against. It can be viewed as a total body, the church of Christ, or else the heart of each individual member attached that it resides within in terms of substantive change already presented and the depth of change yet to be made. It can also be appreciated in the terms of the parable of the pearl as being of such great price. We can think of it in terms of a continuous process that does not end until the man himself decides for his purposes and desires the process has become complete.

We can also be aware that the kingdom leaven is not the only leaven out there that can effect us, that the fowls of the air are not always the angelic ones, that trees can be cut down should they not produce the fruit expected and that no matter where we are at in the process we are not completely there where we are intended yet. Like mother's milk, there has to be the desire driving us onward to the more substantial meat of God's word.

Key Messages:

Delcaring Certainty

kjv@1John:3:2@ Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

kjv@1Corinthians:15:52@ In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

kjv@Mark:8:15@ And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

kjv@Matthew:12:33@ Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.